$4.3M Wellington park a play to keep families

Wellington Community Park, located along Buffalo Creek Parkway, plans to partially open this year with access to the new playground and walking trail. Two ball fields will open next year to host tournaments and league softball.(Photo: Austin Humphreys/The Coloradoan)Buy Photo

At least that’s the attitude some have about the 30-acre park and two baseball fields under construction in north Wellington, where the Wellington Community Park is expected to be partially open by the end of October.

“We really didn’t have any real attractions for people prior to this park being built,” said Wellington Mayor Jack Brinkhoff. “There just wasn’t anything for young families.”

While pieces will open to residents earlier, a grand opening for the park is scheduled for spring 2016. The $4.3 million facility will contain a playground and pond as well as the town’s first dog park, lit baseball fields and splash pad.

Many of Wellington’s nearly 7,000 residents travel south to Fort Collins or surrounding communities for entertainment. While away they spend money that could bolster Wellington’s sales tax revenue, Brikhoff said. “Whatever we can do to keep folks here, all the better.”

Keeping folks in town could mean more money for the handful of local eateries — the Wellington Grill, T Bar Inn, Pizza Palace and The Country Rose Coffee Shop — as well as fast-food chains Taco John’s, McDonald’s, Subway and Domino’s Pizza.

The park could also address the town’s issues with keeping residents long term, said Wellington Trustee Ashley Macdonald. Families like hers tend to move once their children reach junior high or high school.

“One of biggest elements we were missing in town was some place outdoors that people of all abilities and ages can go enjoy," Macdonald said.

In 2014, Macdonald, Trustee Tim Singewald and a handful of other residents pushed the town to build the new park. Her group put forth an initiative that asked voters whether Wellington should borrow $2.4 million for the project.

The measure passed, 548 to 336, during the town’s April 2014 election.

Part of the push for the project, was that the 434-home Buffalo Creek neighborhood — where Macdonald used to live — was slated to have a park ever since the subdivision was platted in 2003.

Wellington requires that subdivisions consist of 20 percent to 25 percent open space like parks and trails. Residential developments must also include land for one neighborhood park within a quarter-mile radius of proposed homes.

But developers may choose shift the burden of constructing the neighborhood park onto Wellington by paying a fair-share, cash contribution for the cost of the park. That was the case with the Buffalo Creek developers.

“It was really sad that (the park) was promised to all of these people, and it wasn’t followed through on. And there wasn’t a plan to follow through on in it the future,” Macdonald said.

Macdonald admits the park likely won’t be the ultimate solution to keeping residents in Wellington, but “it’s certainly not going to hurt,” she said. Going forward, the town will look at developing a trail system that ties in with Fort Collins and is closely watching Poudre School District discussions of building a new school near the town.

“We are going to be on the brink of a population of 10,000 in the next five years,” Macdonald said. “It’s really frustrating because we feel like we’re competing with Timnath (for Poudre School District’s attention).”

Wellington is currently home to about 7,185 people. By 2040, the town projects reaching at least 15,000 residents.

Even though the park project will limit what projects Wellington can pursue during the next decade, the town in is in a good fiscal position, said outgoing Assistant Town Administrator Alisa Darrow.

Darrow said “you never know” if Wellington residents will use another initiative to make the town loosen its purse strings for more amenities.

“A lot of people want a swimming pool,” she said.

This story has a correction: The grand opening of the park is scheduled for spring 2016.